The ORIGINAL Main Street Electrical Parade

05-03-2008, 03:58 AM

So I know that some of the floats are different from what we see now...and I know that the Pinocchio float was removed when it was brought back over to DCA...but what other floats were there??? If I remember correctly, I read somewhere that there was a Maleficent Dragon float??? and a Small World float? and I know that the recording on the Fantasmic! cd there is the whole "Return To Oz" section... what was that float like???

Basically I just want to know what was different, and I mainly want to see photos of the old floats!!! I did see it a few times actually on Main Street, but I was just 8 when it closed from Disneyland...

There was also a Dwarf's Mine float from Snow White. I think the new parade doesn't have this. I think now it's just Dopey driving the mine carts with the other dwarfs walking around. Or maybe its just Dopey and the mine carts. I don't remember. But I do know that the Dwarf's Mine float isn't there anymore.

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The Pinocchio float was sent to Paris & they pretty much wrecked it beyond repair. The It's a Small World float was destroyed in a fire back in the 80's. The Return to Oz float was only used for a year as a promotional gimmick for that movie.

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There was also the Briny Deep unit with the fish band from Bedknobs and Broomsticks which changed to Pinocchio Underwater. I could be mistaken but that unit is now part of the Little Mermaid unit in SpectroMagic at WDW.

Here are some photos captured from an old Super 8mm film of the parade:

They were also the Toy Soliders from Babes In Toyalnd carrying flags and banners behind the Casey Jr. Unit as well

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The Fox and the Hound also had a promotional float featuring Amos' car I think. The Solders were for the Christmas version which added Christmas music to the parde. The Return to Oz float actually had costumes and props from the movie, but I heard it burned down or something. A picture of the float was posted on some Disney blog (don't as me which one) awhile ago, I'm sure you could find it if you searched. Tron (now THAT'S something they should have kept!) had a segment too and the characters can be seen in the Disneyland 30th Anniversary special.

I like The Happiest Millionaire. What's wrong with that?

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The Fox and the Hound also had a promotional float featuring Amos' car I think. The Solders were for the Christmas version which added Christmas music to the parde. The Return to Oz float actually had costumes and props from the movie, but I heard it burned down or something. A picture of the float was posted on some Disney blog (don't as me which one) awhile ago, I'm sure you could find it if you searched. Tron (now THAT'S something they should have kept!) had a segment too and the characters can be seen in the Disneyland 30th Anniversary special.

I did a Google search just now and struck gold. The elusive Return to Oz unit can be found here:

See post 22 for a summary of the history (with a few corrections/additions)

I don't think there is any other place on the web or even at Disney that has this much info!

At YouTube, it looks like the earliest version of Anaheim's MSEP only goes back to 1991

The First of the three part 1991 or 1992 MSEP is HERE
(the link says 1991, but the intro for the video says 1992).
Be sure to notice:
The Blue Fairy has about 6 people carrying the train of her gown,
Snow White's Float, the largest Snow White MSEP float of any of the MSEP's
All the units for Pinnochio

Critter Country's a mess ev'r since the Country Bears were kicked out. Ya can't cover pooh with honey and 'spect people ta like it.

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